Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division
WELCOME
CLEARANCE LEVEL SIX
CLASSIFIED
Structure
SHIELD uses clearance levels to keep order and protect classified information. There are 10 clearance levels, as well as Level Alpha, Omega, and Tango Clearance.
Assets
- Area 51
- Habana Vieja Barbería
- Brynmore Psychiatric Facility
- Camp Lehigh
- The Cocoon
- The Coventry
- The Cube
- The Fridge
- The Guest House
- Hangar SFC-S
- The Hub
- The Joint Dark Energy Mission Facility
- The Labyrinth
- The Lighthouse
- The Playground
- The Rat
- SHIELD Academy
- The Sandbox
- The Slingshot
- The Krazy Kanoe
- The Treehouse
- The Triskelion
- The Vault
History
S.H.I.E.L.D. was formed in 1950 as a successor to the Strategic Scientific Reserve, an Allied deep science agency that fought against the Nazi-sponsored special weapons division HYDRA during the war. The founders of the new agency were Chester Phillips, the director of the SSR, Howard Stark, an industrialist of great wealth and a scientific genius, and Margaret "Peggy" Carter, the former partner of the American war hero Steve Rogers, better known as Captain America. The SSR was reformed as the scientific division of S.H.I.E.L.D. and continued to work on researching the advanced weapons captured from HYDRA as well as the mysterious Tesseract.
Under the supervision of General Rick Stoner, S.H.I.E.L.D. started Project Reclamation, a protocol known only to the highest-ranking S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives and designed as a precaution in case of a catastrophic event that would destroy the world as mankind knew it. A gigantic installation called the Lighthouse was built below ground on the shores of Lake Ontario to serve as a survival bunker for the selected elite from a host of nations. However, the 1972 Hydrogen Wave Crisis was averted and the protocol was never initiated. The Lighthouse and its original purpose eventually fell into obscurity.
S.H.I.E.L.D. scientists Hank Pym and Bill Foster cooperated in Project G.O.L.I.A.T.H., where they experimented with the Pym Particles in order to expand their body mass. Foster was able to achieve a maximum height of twenty-one feet. However, Foster decided to leave the project and then it was quickly abandoned, in the wake of Pym's resignation from S.H.I.E.L.D.
S.H.I.E.L.D. was very active during the Cold War, working on behalf of the United States.
Following his encounter with Captain Marvel, Nick Fury had an idea to employ people with special powers and abilities to defend the Earth against threats that could be too complicated for S.H.I.E.L.D. to handle. He named that operation the Avengers Initiative after Carol Danvers' Air Force callsign.
By 1992, S.H.I.E.L.D. used the North Institute in Ohio as a front for cognitive research, unaware that the S.H.I.E.L.D. scientists were actually agents of HYDRA, who were using the research to improve the Winter Soldier Program. Russia, under the command of Dreykov, a high-ranking general, sent Alexei Shostakov and Melina Vostokoff undercover to Ohio in order to infiltrate the facility and obtain the data, while Natasha Romanoff and Yelena Belova were assigned to pretend to be their daughters. After three years undercover, Shostakov was able to steal the data, and the "family" fled to a private airfield, with S.H.I.E.L.D. in pursuit. This resulted in a brief firefight between S.H.I.E.L.D. and Shostakov, although the four Russians were successfully able to take off, fleeing to Cuba.
During a hostage situation in Bogota, Agent Nick Fury successfully saved all the hostages, including Alexander Pierce's daughter from ELN rebels. Pierce was surprised by Fury's performance and later made him director of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Under Fury's leadership, the agency recruited the greatest marksman on the planet, Clint Barton, and the world's deadliest spy, Natasha Romanoff, becoming some of the agency's most elite agents, as well as the few people that Fury would trust. At that time, Agent Phil Coulson served as Fury's right-hand man, though the actual deputy director of the agency was Maria Hill.
Founding Date
1950
Type
Secret, Government
Alternative Names
SHIELD
Predecessor Organization
Leader
Leader Title
Founders
Notable Members
